In recent years, Amsterdam has earned a reputation as a genuine smart city. Not because it is pioneering technological urbanism – building megastructures filled with interconnected digital sensors and robots – but rather, as urban sociologist Saskia Sassen puts it, because the city actively urbanises technology.

In other words, Amsterdam has got very good at melding previously disparate systems of data, technology, energy and mobility through government, business and citizen-led initiatives.

Mobility and food have emerged as important pillars of the city’s quest for smart sustainability. Earlier this year, the city council presented its new food vision, a strategy intended to create a more sustainable and economically-strong food system. One of its main priorities is transport, whereby distribution is done by cleaner vehicles doing fewer miles. With a large chunk of the transport network taken up with urban food distribution – 15 million annual food miles in Amsterdam alone – there is work to be done.

While large food and drink wholesalers are now using electric trucks for distribution, and the country’s largest supermarkets are using them for home deliveries, the products delivered by these big players do not necessarily promote the production and consumption of locally-sourced quality food. And it doesn’t solve the issue of congestion: Amsterdam’s urban core – much of it pre-18th century – is not built for cars, let alone heavier transport.

Amsterdam is famous for its bicycle-friendly culture and infrastructure, which has inspired its new food transportation initiative. Photograph: Graeme Robertson

But alternatives are entering the arena – and not only from existing large businesses or public/private partnerships. This month saw the launch of Foodlogica, which aims to contribute to the localised food system by providing affordable zero-emissions transport and less traffic congestion. This urban delivery service uses solar-powered electric tricycles for the final link in the food distribution system, as well as aiming to shorten the chain between local food producers and sellers.

Running a small pilot since June, Foodlogica is working with six environmentally-conscious local food businesses, using two electric trikes working out of transport hubs. Three of these businesses sell produce from local and regional farmers to supermarkets, workplaces and households, and Foodlogica is expanding its client base at a rapid rate. Beginning life as a lean startup, it hopes to become a model for sustainable urban food transportation around the world.

“Once we’re up and running, and when we have acquired more clients, we will scale up,” says the company’s founder, Francesca Miazzo. “We are talking to big parties who do thousands of weekly deliveries and are interested to have part of that delivered in a smart way.”

Foodlogica’s transport hubs, each consisting of a recycled shipping container equipped with solar panels to charge the two e-trikes, will be located at strategic locations across the city where incoming food is transferred to the urban delivery system. The first station was placed at the Amsterdam Food Centre – the city’s main food distribution node – and from there the tricycles carry out the deliveries into the urban centre.

“Ideally, we’ll have four transport hubs in various spots around Amsterdam in a year from now,” Miazzo says. If this proves possible in Amsterdam’s constricted urban environment, the system could easily be duplicated in other cities around the world.

Miazzo is not new to the local food world. She co-founded CITIES Foundation, whose Farming the City project was created in 2010 to map and research Amsterdam’s urban food initiatives, as well as explore how local food systems contribute to more resilient cities around the world.

One of the project’s findings was that transport in Amsterdam remains a barrier to sustainability and efficiency. The research identified a need for swift, flexible urban food transport not hampered by traffic jams and one-way streets; hence Foodlogica’s e-trikes.

“It’s not only a delivery service,” Miazzo explains. “You should see it as a platform for good food companies from Amsterdam, bringing them together and showcasing them.”